


fight or flight

by narcissae



Series: eat their young - Fox!Riko AU [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Child Abuse, Fox!Riko AU, Gen, M/M, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 07:13:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11143452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narcissae/pseuds/narcissae
Summary: riko has trouble adjusting to the foxes, and to wymack, and to not being in the nest anymore, but he goes to his therapy, and he goes to practice, and he tries to be good, until he doesn't. wymack finds out some unpleasant details about the nest.





	fight or flight

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing the Fox!Riko AU in little snippets on my tumblr, starting with that iconic scene of Riko and Neil having a fight in Sweetie's over Neil supposedly flirting with Ichirou - that was almost a year ago. I'm finally moving my works to AO3, and this is the first one, because it best represents what the AU is meant to be. I hope you enjoy!

David Wymack is used to taking care of children that are broken. He brings out the glue gun, and the duster, and sets to work, and then proudly shows the result of his efforts to the world, even when people scoff at the embarrassing second, third, fourth hand DIY mess of humans he’s amassed on his shelf and under his wing.

Taking in Kevin Day had been one of the hardest decisions of his life. He’d stood up against many things – drunken fathers with heavy fists who wanted him to relinquish his hold on the dusty treasures they considered property, courts of law who had no interest in justice, even the children themselves, in all their bitter ingratitude, and he only halfway flinched at the thought of standing up to an international crime syndicate. And then just as he was about to say yes, and bring Kevin Day into the messy folds of the foxhole, his phone had rang, and he’d excused himself, picking up with his bloody unbroken right hand, and then before Wymack could ask for a translation of the rapid French, he’d disappeared down the hall.

And then Wymack had faced the choice of very directly putting himself in front of a gun, and maybe a sword, when he decided to take in Riko Moriyama as well.

Later, he would find out that Jean Moreau had been the one to call Kevin, afraid that Riko might really die at the hands of Tetsuji Moriyama. Later, he would find out that Riko’s signature on a Fox contract was forged, because Riko, even in death, would never have agreed to leave the Nest. Later, he would find out that Riko’s family was less than happy with his change in ownership, in the form of a threatening visit from a man named Nathan Wesninski, which preceded a much less threatening visit from the heir apparent of the empire, Ichirou Moriyama.

And those were just the easy parts of Riko and Kevin’s transfer.

Riko hated being a fox. He hated being at Palmetto. On a good day, he was spiteful, mean and resentful. On a bad day, he was all of those things, and then some. He hated being at PSU with such a visceral pathological passion it made Wymack, who’d almost never regretted taking a child in, almost regret taking him in. Riko’s distaste for the other foxes was almost physically palpable when they were in the same room. His aggressive playing style on the court was a foul short of pure violence, and the things he had to say about the team, individually, as players, and on a personal level, could have brought any lesser people to tears.

And yet, none of that pure antagonism ever displayed itself when Wymack was in the room. He didn’t think Riko was pretending to be something he wasn’t in front of him – he remained cold and arrogant, aloof and keeping largerly to himself, pointedly moving out of the way, and choosing to lean on the wall, rather than sit in the circle with the rest of his teammate, which even Kevin joined reluctantly. He positioned himself always as far from Wymack as he could without physically removing himself from the room. In practice he took criticism and direction with very little backtalk, for all the he acted and talked like there couldn’t possibly be any room for improvement in his playing.

It took Wymack much longer than he was proud to admit to realize Riko was afraid of him. Not just afraid. Terrified.

The fight had broken out as it always did – Seth couldn’t keep his tongue behind his teeth, and Riko after months of gearing up for it, had punched him, and then tackled him, and kept going, relying on his smaller size, and speed and general training to deal the maximum amount of damage. Wymack was going to give Seth credit for not throwing the first punch this time.

Matt and Nicky grabbed Seth, who was clearly ready to keep going, even though he was already bleeding, and Kevin grabbed Riko, and spoke in his ear until the murder in his eye quieted down to something ugly and simmering just under the surface, and Dan called for a break.

“Riko, my office, right now,” Wymack barked.

He’d known Riko and Seth had had a few scuffles. Matt had said as much, when he’d asked Wymack to approve Riko’s request to live off campus.

The Riko in his office was nothing to the dark menacing cloud of violence he was outside it. His face was locked behind an impenetrable mask of polite detachment that he wore for the media, and the other students on the PSU campus. His shoulders were tight, his jaw clenched almost painfully.

He waited for Wymack to sit, but didn’t sit down himself.

“Well,” David said. “You wanna tell me what happened?”

Riko’s eyes shifted to the shelf beside Wymack’s head.

“He called Kevin the f-word.” he said quietly, dispassionately. “I don’t give a shit what he calls me.”

“But he went after Kevin,” Wymack added. “I understand.”

“I’ll accept any consequences for my actions. I was out of line.”

“I’m glad you realize that.”

Riko nodded. The tightness around his eyes belonged to someone much older than him.

“I’m benching you for the next few weeks. It’s not productive to team practice if there’s fighting on the court.”

Riko looked like he wanted to say something, but then quickly shut his mouth.

“Very well. I understand.”

But he didn’t leave. It occurred to Wymack that he was expecting more. He’d grown up in the Nest after all. He shuddered to think what kind of punishmend acting out would have gotten him there. He stood up, and walked around him, to open the door, clear as day that Riko was waiting for a formal dismissal, and the flinch that ran through the boy’s entire body was so sharp and violent, it made him step all the way across the room. Riko wasn’t meeting his eyes.

“I apologize,” he said. His fists, clenched at his sides, were shakig.

“Riko. Look at me.”

He did, and there was something wild in his eyes.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I should not have moved when you – “

“Did you think I was going to hit you then?”

Riko nods once, sharply, and his eyes are wide.

“And you are apologizing because you flinched?”

Another nod. He can hear Riko’s breathing becoming more shallow.

“Why did you think I would hit you?”

Riko can’t seem to bear looking at him. He shifts his eyes.

“You said you were going to bench me.” he says, his voice almost a whisper.

“You thought I was going to beat you for what you did to Seth,” Wymack clarifies.

“It is what the Master would have done to anyone on the team. I am not the captain here. I have no authority. I had no right to do what I did. I said I would accept the consequences for my actions, and I will. That you’re willing to bench me shows you are the kind of man Kevin says you are. The Master wouldn’t have.”

Wymack doesn’t even know where to begin with unpacking this. He thinks this might be the longest Riko has ever spoken to him, and it’s more than clear why.

“Riko. Sit down.”

The movement lacks Riko’s usual fluid grace. He collapses in the chair like his knees have given out, and he doesn’t look afraid, except for the way in which his eyes dart around the room, and then to Wymack, like he’s wondering if he will be punished for trying to defend himself.

He’s known. Of course he’d known – the very reason Riko was on his team was the Tetsuji had nearly beaten him to death for breaking Kevin’s hand. Abstractly, he’d known. Kevin had let things slip, about the kind of man and exy couch Tetsuji Moriyama was. About the Ravens. It had been abstract. Riko had seemed cold and untouchable, and somehow he’d assumed – even impervious to the abuse at the Nest. A perpetrator, never a victim.

“I will never, ever beat you.” he says quietly, slowly. He wants to make sure every word sinks on its place. “I need you to look at me, and tell me you understand.”

Riko nods, and then repeats back, almost on autopilot, “You will never beat me.”

He looks like he’s thinking of all the other things Wymack can do to him instead. Like he’s listing, in his mind, other ways he can be hurt – has been hurt.

“This is not the Nest. This is not the Ravens. This is not how we do things around here. Have you been going to your sessions with Dr. Dobson?”

Another reflexive nod.

“Have you talked about the stuff that happened to you at the nest? The stuff Coach Moriyama did?”

A non-committal shrug.

David sighs. He runs a hand over his face.

“I’ve made you angry,” Riko observes quietly. His voice is flat.

“No. Not you, at the moment.”

“But you are angry,” Riko clarifies, more for his own benefit. “My uncle only did what he had to do, because I am worthless and unloveable, and lack discipline. I owe him my gratitude. I deserved all my punishments, just as I will deserve anything you deem necessary to do to me, to correct my behaviour.”

It occurs to David, that driving a chair through Tetsuji Moriyama’s face is on an endless list of viable actions at the next ERC event, right up there with punshing him with his bare fists, and no court of law could ever judge him for it.

“I want you to start seeing Bee more often,” he says instead. “You’re benched for the rest of the month. And when we have practice, you’ll be going to therapy, understood?”

Again with the nodding.

“That is all,” Wymack says, and tries to make his voice hard. “You will have access to the court as usual, to practice on your own, and run drills – Dan will let you know what you have missed, so you don’t fall behind. And that is all.” he emphasizes.

“You’re dismissed.”

“Yes, coach. Thank you.”

Riko stands up to leave.

“And Riko-? “

He turns around immediately. “Sir?”

“That being said, I don’t want anymore fighting. I don’t care what Seth says about you or Kevin.”

“Yes, sir.”

The door closes behind him with a quiet click. He can hear Riko’s heavy breathing on the other side of it. Any thought of regretting taking him in leaves his mind.


End file.
